Posts tagged lyft

While Uber is doing its best to make sure passengers feel safe with its drivers, Lyft just wants us all to be friends. Next week a new "Lyft profiles" feature is coming to the app that the company hopes will "humanize" the "ride experience," sparking conversations and connecting passengers and dri...

Uber isn't the only ridesharing outfit running into legal trouble these days -- Lyft is now facing a lawsuit over claims that it deprived new drivers of promised bonuses. The transportation company allegedly committed fraud by offering $1,000 to drivers who completed their first ride by March 5th,...

A ridesharing service only helps you out if drivers want to pick you up in the first place, and Lyft clearly knows it -- the company just countered Uber's new perk system with one of its own. Accelerate, as it's called, puts drivers in one of three status levels depending on how many rides they of...

California just stepped back from a policy that might have had a big, big impact on ridesharing services in the Golden State. Its Department of Motor Vehicles has revoked a finding that drivers for companies like Lyft and Uber need commercial license plates in order to do business. The DMV origina...

Lyft likes to position itself as the cheery alternative to Uber's serious (and sometimes cutthroat) ridesharing service. However, that big, fuzzy mustache on the nose of the company's vehicles may be hurting more than it helps -- your business pals won't be impressed when you show up in a cartooni...

We're just about through with 2014, so it's the perfect time to take a look back at the defining moments of the past year. To help, we've rounded up some of the biggest stories of 2014. Click on the gallery below to find out what made the list, along with other stories that made headlines in the p...

Uber and Lyft's universally-hated surge pricing model, which drives fares up depending on rider demand, will once again help ring in the New Year. And don't be surprised if that leads to plenty of social media kvetching. If you don't want to be that person surprised by an unexpectedly bill along w...

Ridesharing companies like Uber insure drivers when they're picking up fares, and personal policies are supposed to cover moments when those drivers are waiting for customers. However, BuzzFeed News has learned that it doesn't work that way in practice -- and that's potentially a very expensive pr...

It's basically impossible to ignore the impact that the likes of Uber and Lyft have had on the taxicab industry, and Chicago's given up trying. The city government has approved a package from the local cab-drivers union that, among other things, pushes for unified mobile dispatching apps. As propo...

Wonder how Uber's week could get worse? Today the district attorneys for Los Angeles and San Francisco announced they're following through on their threat to sue the company, and that they have reached a settlement with its competitor Lyft. According to the DAs (PDF), the lawsuit against Uber is b...

When you live in a crowded city, having a vehicle can sometimes feel more like a burden than a luxury. Finding parking, paying for insurance, dealing with the occasional fender bender – managing all of these things could drive even the most serene among us to the brink. But hey, it's 2014, s...

It's no surprise that ridesharing outfits like Lyft and Uber are disrupting the taxi business through lower pricing and technological advantages. However, it's now clear that these app-based upstarts are also hitting taxis where it really hurts: the value of owning a taxi service. A New York Times...

App-based carpooling options like Lyft Line and UberPool are useful if you'd rather not drive to work yourself... but what if you do drive, and want to make a little money on the side? That's where Lyft's newest offering, Driver Destination, could come into play. The tier lets you only accept Lyft...

It's been a strange couple of months for on-demand transportation startup Uber. A Medium article published in September by entrepreneur Peter Sims revealed that Uber's all-seeing "God View" tracking software was occasionally (or perhaps frequently) used for non-business purposes, and while a claim...

Now that carpooling services have made ridesharing cheap enough to use for day-to-day commuting, wouldn't it be nice if your workplace could easily pay for that ridesharing? Apparently, Lyft thinks so -- it's launching Lyft for Work, an initiative that lets companies buy credits for your app-based...

New York City isn't always kind to ridesharing services like Lyft and Uber, but those companies have just gained an important ally. BuzzFeed News has learned that state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman recently sent a letter to NYC's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) opposing rules that would ...

It was only a matter of time before San Francisco International Airport allowed direct visits from app-based ridesharing services besides Sidecar, and those floodgates have officially opened. Both Lyft and Uber (specifically, UberX and UberXL) now have the all-clear to stop at SFO's terminals. If ...

One of San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón's many complaints about ride-sharing services is that none of them had the permits necessary to take customers to SFO. Sidecar, however, has ticked that box by obtaining official permission to take passengers to and from their flights, al...

When you think of hailing cars from your smartphone, you probably envision Uber's fleet of black cars or Lyft's festive pink mustaches. Competitors like mobile cab-hailing startup Hailo never reached critical mass outside Europe the same way its two biggest rivals did -- that's why it revealed tod...

The world's authorities must have something of a love/hate relationship with ridesharing companies. On one hand, it's a disruptive new technology that encourages competition, which they love, but it's also a regulatory nightmare for all involved. After all, someone has to think about the unwitting...